Morgan Scholar, Long-Time Professor And Author Dies

Richard I. McKinney, Professor Emeritus at Morgan State University and former chairman and acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, died Friday, October 28, 2005, while attending a conference in Norfolk, VA. He was 99.

Dr. McKinney was a native of Florida, and a graduate of Morehouse College and Andover Newton Theological Seminary. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Yale University, an honorary degree from St. Paul’s College and studied at Pendle Hill, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University, and was a post-doctoral scholar at the Sorbonne in Paris.

After a brief pastorate at Pine Street Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, he began his career teaching philosophy and religion at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, and later becoming dean of the university’s School of Religion, Dr. McKinney went on to accumulate a long list of accomplishments. He served as president of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, held Visiting Professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, the Medical College of Georgia, the University of Ife in Nigeria, and Bethune-Cookman College. McKinney was also Visiting Scholar in Philosophical Theology at Coppin State College, Bicentennial Lecturer at the College of Notre Dame and the Alaine Locke Lecturer in Philosophy at Howard University. He came to Morgan State University in 1951 and retired as Professor of Philosophy Emeritus in 1978.

Active in a number of civic organizations, Dr. McKinney was a member of many organizations including the Board of Directors of the Reginald E. Lewis Museum of African American History of Maryland, the Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore, the Institution Review Board of the University of Maryland and past chairman of Union Baptist Church’s Board of Trustees.

A celebration of Dr. Richard I. McKinney’s life will be held Saturday, November 12, 2005, at Union Baptist Church, 1219 Druid Hill Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217. Fraternal services will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by a family hour. The memorial service will be conducted at 12:00 Noon. The family has requested that donations be made in lieu of flowers, to the Dr. Richard I. McKinney Philosophy Scholarship Fund, c/o the Morgan State University Foundation.